


The Redhead on the Underground

by LuckyLadyLily



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-03-06 15:33:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13414260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyLadyLily/pseuds/LuckyLadyLily
Summary: A series of shorts showing how Emily and Tracer met.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> These are not necessarily in chronological order except chapter 1 and 2 come first and are in order.

“Um, excuse me. Are you Lena Oxton?” Emily asked. Of course she knew it was, it just sounded really stupid in her head to introduce herself as a fan. Oxton was a soldier, she saved lives. She wasn’t some pop star you fan girl over.

“I am.” Lena said, looking up from her phone. She had a wary expression.

“Hi, uh, my name is Emily, and I my family lived in King’s Row, you know, back then. I just wanted to say thank you. For saving us.” Emily said.

Lena’s face lit up.

“Oh, your welcome! I mean, it was all just part of the job, right?” Lena said, a bit awkward but clearly very pleased. “That was my first mission.”

“I know.” Emily said without thinking, then caught herself. “I, uh, looked you and the rest of your squad up after.” Emily explained awkwardly.

“Really?” Lena asked, looking up at Emily with clear interest.

“Yeah, I even had some of the Overwatch merchandise.” Emily said, hoping that wasn’t too strange.

“I remember when Ana came up with that idea. It was supposed to help us with our public image.” Lena said, grinning. “Did you have that poster they made of us?”

“I did! It was up over my desk until I moved out of my parents place.” Emily said, blushing a little. The poster was somewhat infamous in the Overwatch fan community for the way it showed off Tracer’s ass. Emily hoped Lena didn’t know that.

“Thanks for saying something Emily. People aren’t always kind about my time in Overwatch. It is nice to be reminded of the good we were able to do.” Lena said.

“Well it was good to meet you. I’ll let you get back to your own thing.” Emily said. “And thank you again.” 

“It was good to meet you too. Maybe I’ll see you around.” Lena said. 

“That would be nice.” Emily said, then turned away to find a seat far enough away that things wouldn’t be awkward. She sat down and got out her phone.

<Mum, you will never guess what just happened!>


	2. Chapter 2

Ever since Emily approached Lena she had been waving to Emily. Nothing big, just if she saw her on the platform or on the train she would give a quick wave and smile. Nothing big. But it was a bit of a high point in Emily's day whenever it happened.

Because of this it was immediately obvious something was wrong today when Lena stepped on to the train. Her body language was all wrong, there was none of her usual bubbly happiness. She was trying to cover the glow from her accelerator as she chose a seat in the far back as far away from people as she could manage, keeping her eyes on the ground. It was so uncharacteristic. she looked like she was in pain. After a brief internal debate Emily stood up and approached her.

“Lena? Can I sit here?” Emily asked.

Lena looked up at her for a moment and nodded before looking back down. Emily sat down next to her, hoping she wasn’t making whatever it was worse.

“I hope I am not prying, but are you ok?” Emily asked.

Lena didn’t look up again. There were tears forming in her eyes. It took her a few tries to speak, choking on her words until she finally managed to get something out.

“I don’t feel good.” She said, her nails digging into her legs.

“Is there anything I can do?” Emily asked.

“Can... I hold your hand?” Lena asked hesitantly.

Without any hesitation Emily silently offered her hand. Lena took it, holding on so tight it almost hurt. She closed her eyes and took a deep, long breath, and then another. A tear ran down her face. 

The pair sat in silence for nearly a half hour, Lena gripping Emily’s hand, controlling her breathing, and occasionally wiping away tears. Emily didn’t know what to do, so she didn’t do anything. She just sat and waited. They passed her stop but that didn’t really seem important at the moment.

Eventually, gradually, Lena seemed to recover. The tears stopped, the tension gradually released from her body, and the death grip she had on Emily’s hand loosened. Eventually she pulled her hand away all together.

“I, um… thank you.” Lena said. “Sometimes I have bad days. Sorry if that was awkward.”

“Oh no, it’s fine.” Emily said. “Are you going to be ok? Do you need anything else?”

“The worst of it’s over. I can go home and rest, I’ll be fine.” Lena said. "Thanks, you really helped a lot."  


Neither woman said another word until they came to Lena’s stop. As she got off the train she turned back and said thank you one last time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily and Lena get coffee and gossip.

“Alright, so, I sorta had a thing for the doctor.” Lena said. Emily just rolled her eyes in response.

“You and every other lesbian in the world.” Emily said, taking a sip of her coffee. 

“Yeah, but  _ you _ didn’t work with her.  _ You  _ didn’t get the chance to awkwardly hit on her and make a fool of yourself, did you?” Lena said.

“Oh no. You didn’t.” 

“Of course I did.” Lena said.

“Well you can’t stop there, what happened?”

“What do you think happened? I was a 19 year old hitting on a 30 year old super genius. I made an idiot of myself, that is what happened.” Lena said, grinning. “She was real nice about turning me down though.”

“Probably against regulations or something anyway.” Emily said.

Lena shrugged.

“Probably. But… Ok, you cannot tell anyone this stuff, ok Em? Like, no one.”

“Of course…” Emily said, prompting her to continue.

“Well the old Overwatch core was a close knit group, right? We didn’t really bother too much about regulations. The job was your life. It was important. Hopping all over the world at a moment’s notice, training all the time to keep up our skills, it wasn’t exactly the kind of job that is promotes a healthy social life.” Lena said. “The only real relationships we had were with each other, it wasn’t as if we could avoid emotional attachment. So if two soldiers wanted to blow off a bit of steam together the commander was inclined to look the other way.”

“Sounds lonely.” 

“It was. I think our detachment from the real world was a major part of what caused Overwatch to fall apart. We got in too deep. Lost perspective.”

“There has been some call lately to bring Overwatch back.” Emily said.

“I’m not sure what to think about that. They would probably try to get me on board.” Lena said. “Probably try to get as many of us as possible on board, or at least those of us with clean reputations. Angela. Winston. Fareeha, probably.”

“Would you join back up?”

“I’m not sure. Depends on who is calling the shots, really. We can’t just make the same mistakes again and hope things turn out better this time.”

“But as I was saying, it isn't like the commanders could tell us off about regulations. It was a bit of an open secret that Morrison and Reyes had something going on.” Lena said conspiratorially.

“ _ Really _ .” Emily loved being in on the gossip, and this was some choice gossip.

“There was a lot of that stuff going on.” Lena explained. “Angela in particular made no effort to hide that she liked to sleep around, so I figured what was the worst that could happen? But you know how it is. You get all nervous and forget what you were going to say and it was a hundred times worse than usual because she's older  _ and _ a genius  _ and  _ world famous  _ and  _ drop dead gorgeous. It took her several minutes of me stuttering just to figure out what was going on.” Lena said, eyes a bit unfocused with a goofy smile on her face as she basked in nostalgia. “God I was terrible back then.”


	4. Chapter 4

“I just want you to understand that Winston is a bit unusual.” Lena said as she unlocked to door to her apartment complex and led them to the elevator. Emily had been invited over for Lena and Winston’s game night. For reasons Emily didn’t entirely understand game night was a very big deal, Emily was the first person they had ever invited to join them. It felt like meeting her dad.

“You keep on saying that.” Emily said. “Are you ok? Not having a panic attack?” Lena had an impulsive need to reassure those around her during anxiety and panic episodes, and it often manifested with her repeating herself over and over.

“No, you don’t need to worry, I am feeling good today.” Lena said as she punched the elevator button.

“K. Gotta make sure you are taken care of, hun.” Emily said, giving Lena a quick kiss on the cheek.

“I just want you to understand that Winston is not going to be what you expect.” Lena said.

“You have said that so many times I don't think there is anything at this point that could surprise me.” Emily said. “Besides, this is practically a dream come true for me. Reading about Dr. Winston's work on your chronal accelerator and his father's work on genetics is what inspired me to become a scientist. It was amazing stuff, right out of a science fiction novel.” Emily said excitedly. “I get to meet one of my major role models!”

The elevator opened with a ‘ding!’ and the pair stepped inside. There was a short lull in the conversation. Lena usually just said the first thing that came into her head, but sometimes she was very careful about the words she was about to use. Usually when she thought precision was important. Emily knew Lena well enough by now to practically see the wheels in her head turning.

“You know he was adopted, right?” Lena asked.

“I read the interview he did about that. He didn't even have a proper name, which is why he took on his father's. I always admired that he was willing to share that about his history despite his problems.” Emily said.

“Problems?”

“Oh, I don’t mean anything bad by it, just he is very private? He only gives presentations remotely, he never makes any sort of public appearances. No one knows what he looks like. I always figured he had some major anxiety or agoraphobia or something? Speculating too much feels like prying though. I am sure he has his reasons.” Emily said. 

“Well you’re not wrong.” Lena said, grinning. The elevator opened up again and they started walking to Lena’s door.

“Something funny?” Emily asked.

“You'll understand when you meet him.” Lena said, unlocking the apartment.

“Winston! You here?” Lena shouted.

“In the kitchen, getting a snack.” A deep, booming voice said from inside the apartment. “You are out of peanut butter.”

“Come on Em!” Lena said, dragging Emily into the kitchen.

There was a gorilla in the kitchen. It was wearing a button up shirt and squared spectacles. He was eating a jar of peanut butter with a large spoon. It suddenly made sense why Lena usually had 5 jars of peanut butter on the shelf.

“Winston, this is Emily. Emily, Winston.” Lena said, standing back to watch the show.  


“Ah, hello! Lena has told me a lot about you.” The gorilla- Winston said. He put down the peanut butter and spoon and knuckled over to Emily, offering a handshake. It took a moment for Emily to respond.

“Um, hi.” She said. His hand was comically large as she shook it. "Good to meet you."  


“I take it Lena didn’t warn you?” Winston said with a wide smile, picking back up his peanut butter.

“I, uh… Kind of? She said I would be surprised.” Emily said. The shock was starting to wear off and Emily was starting to slot things into place. Dr. Winston’s work with intelligence enhancement. Of course.

“What was I supposed to say?” Lena asked, jumping up to sit on the counter. “My best friend is a gorilla? You would have thought I was pulling your leg. I figured it would work itself out.”

“The look on your face was priceless.” Winston said. “Come on, I brought Catan.”

**Author's Note:**

> My blog: https://luckyladylily.tumblr.com/


End file.
